Simmons, Dapco forge marketing agreement

Dapco Industries, Inc., Ridgefield, Conn., and Simmons Machine Tool Corp., Albany, N.Y., have signed an agreement to offer Dapco’s Turnkey Ultrasonic Inspection Systems for use with the Simmons Stanray and Hegenscheidt U2000-400 underfloor wheel profiling machines and other Simmons Axle and Wheelset Metrology and Inspection systems. Dapco’s ultrasonic inspection technology will be integrated into the Simmons products.

Dapco’s Turnkey Ultrasonic Inspection Systems are used in a wide range of systems but have recently been adapted to inspect for possible sub-surface cracks on railroad wheels and axles. “Integrating the Dapco Wheel Inspection system into the profiling operation allows the end user to inspect the wheel either before or after the profiling operation,” says Dapco Manager, Sales & Marketing Bob Coakley. “Having this added feature provides rolling stock engineering groups with the flexibility needed to find the type of defects that cause broken wheel derailments.” Dapco recently installed similar systems for Amtrak and the Union Pacific.

Dapco Industries is part of Nordco, Inc., which also includes J.E.R. Overhaul, Shuttlewagon, and Nordco Rail Service. Simmons Machine Tool Corp. manufactures machines dedicated to railway wheelset maintenance or production applications. The company is part of the NSH Group, which is comprised of Hegenscheidt-MFD, Erkelenz, Germany; Niles-Simmons Industrieanlagen GmbH, Chemnitz, Germany; and NSH-CTI, Nanchang, China.